'Dear White People' stars explain why now is the time for the show

Across the country, Americans felt shockwaves as Donald Trump won the election in a massive upset, and when series creator Justin Simien woke up the next morning, it was to a very different reality.

"When I finally picked myself out of bed the next day, I just felt so proud that immediately I had something ready for this new world," Simien told Mashable in February. "I think it will encourage people who are feeling really, really unseen right now and taking a lot of losses, and I think it’ll open some minds, I really really do. And the people that were going to be mad already — they’re going to be mad as hell."

"Let’s give each of these characters their own little canvas, and let’s see how far we can go."

If the incendiary title of the show sounds familiar, it's because Simien already made it as a movie, released in 2014 and starring Tessa Thompson (Westworld) as an Ivy League student frustrated with her university's tone-deaf racial tensions.

"Because she’s written by Justin, [Sam] is very — everything is very eloquently put," says Logan Browning, who plays Sam in the episodic version. "What I do that’s different from Sam is I go and I say, 'Who is this going to offend? Is this politically correct? Am I allowed to say that?' and I do all of that before I say things. Sam says the honest way she feels and the way that she has surveyed the land and delivers that."

"I love multi-protagonist movies, and I saw it as a film, but ultimately I was unsatisfied," Simien said. "I wanted to go deeper with all the characters...and so for me TV was just the natural step to take a multi-protagonist movie. Like let’s give each of these characters their own little canvas and let’s see how far we can go."

As Simien toured the film in 2014, particularly on college campuses, he began to "collect stories" from young people who were relived and gratified to see their experiences on screen.

"For me, for instance, watching Moonlight was profound on many levels, but because I’d never, ever, ever thought I would see some of these exchanges that I knew so well in my personal life on film," Simien elaborated. "I never thought that my experience was worthy enough to be shown to the entire culture."

Executive Producer Yvette Lee Bowser (Living Single) emphasized to Simien that "it’s important to keep yourself in your own show." So Simien set out to explore every character further; including the the explicitly gay Lionel (a delightful DeRon Horton), whose sexuality was previously only hinted at.

"Certainly for queer folks, the queer community who watched the movie and wanted more I wanted to give them a lot more of that experience, because it is worthy to be seen," Simien said.

Logan Browning as Sam White, who is real tired of your shit.

Image: Adam Rose/Netflix

Like Orange is the New Black or Lost, Dear White People's episodes are character-based, expanding out from a blackface party that ignites combustive campus relations. Interactions and timelines overlap, creating a puzzle that grows as more pieces fall into place. Richardson and Bell reprise their film roles, Bell as the Dean's son Troy.

"Justin provided with the series room for Troy to grow and explore different parts of what makes Troy tick," Bell explained. "His relationship with Lionel, his relationship with women, his relationship with his father...I mean he’s really holding down the ideals of his father and the world at large in the political spectrum, which is in conflict with what Troy really wants to do."

Troy is just one example of what Simien says the show is about at its core: The conflict between identity and self. It's a constant struggle for characters like Sam, who is mixed race, and Coco, who disagrees with many of her peers' vocal approach to addressing systemic racism.

"Given everything that we know about society...which version of yourself do you put forward?" Simien asks. "Do you put forward who you are and do you even know what that is, or do you put forward an identity?"

"Everyone’s at an intersection in the show, even the ones that seem super comfortable," Simien says, pointing specifically to Reggie, who experiences a major shift during the season. "I just feel like that’s where we’re at right now. I’m trying to figure out how do we do something about all this, but how do I also do it and keep myself sane — because this shit makes me sad, you know?"

But as Simien notes, the changed social climate might be just the place where his show catches the spark it seeks to change hearts and minds — or at the very least, get them thinking.

Dear White People begins streaming on Netflix April 28.

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